All American Heroes
by Tzuzuku
Summary: It sounds like the beginning of a joke: a hard-bitten vigilante, a crooked cop, and a precocious 8-year-old girl are stuck in an abandoned apartment building; Unfortunately for those involved, it isn't one.


**_This was originally written for LJ-user Sunnybea as part of the Summer gift exchange over at the Person of Interest Fanfic Community._**

**_Please, note that English isn't my first language and that this story is un-betaed. I did read through it multiple times, but there's always the possibility of missing something. So, I apologize for any and all mistakes that are still in it._**

**.**

**All American Heroes**

.

Captain America threw himself through the open door and landed with a loud crash on the wooden floorboards. He scrambled up onto his knees and put one hand to his right ear.

"Finch! We need back-up! Fast!"

Rani couldn't hear what the voice in his ear answered, but judging by the expression on his face it wasn't good news.

"Great. Just great."

The tall, dark haired man let his gaze travel through the apartment. His eyes seemed to take in every pealing wallpaper, every boarded up window, and every dust mite on the floor.

"What now?" asked Bucky from where he crouched behind an knocked over coffee table. He had drawn his gun. His voice shook.

"We wait, Lionel", Captain America drawled. "The police is on the way. We just need to hold them off for a while."

"And did your friend say how long 'a while' it will be?"

The Captain answered with a silent stare.

"Yeah. Didn't think so."

Rani turned the page.

"Hey."

Captain America shuffled over and crouched down beside her. "You still okay?"

"Yes." She nodded.

The rough wooden floorboards scraped at her bare legs. Short skirts weren't made for sitting cross legged in abandoned apartment buildings. She leaned back against the mite infected sofa.

"I'm good."

He looked at her incredulously.

"Are you sure?"

She didn't know how to make him believe her. So, she nodded again.

He obviously didn't think she meant it, but he accepted her answer anyway. Adults were peculiar that way, she knew.

"How does it look?" He asked Bucky, who was surreptitiously glancing out of a boarded up window.

"We're screwed, man."

"Lionel." Captain America's tone carried a warning.

Perhaps, he didn't appreciate his partner using strong language in front of a Lady, Rani thought. But, really, he shouldn't bother. She heard far worse from her grandmother's mouth each day.

"Just saying, man." Bucky shook his head and stepped back from the window. "Three in the building. Another four just arrived. Might as well save ourselves the trouble."

"We will not hand her over to them", the Captain hissed. It was probably meant to be said quietly, so that she wouldn't hear. But sound carried in these empty rooms.

"What do you suggest we do then?"

"We hold out until the police arrives."

While tension was heavy in his voice, Captain America's posture radiated nothing but indomitable determination.

Rani turned the page.

"Stay with her!" The Captain ordered before creeping back to the apartment's front door, keeping his head down and his back to the wall all the way.

Bucky sighed but came over to Rani. He plopped down beside her. Dust rose from the floorboards like thin sparkling mist. He looked at her for a moment, obviously searching for something to say in order to break the silence that had descended.

"What's that you're reading?"

He jerked his hand towards the comic in her lap, drawing it back sharply when he remembered the gun still clasped in it.

"Captain America", Rani answered.

"Oh?"

He was quiet for so long that she thought he wouldn't speak to her again.

"My boy's more of a Batman fan."

Rani blinked.

"Batman's okay", she admitted grudgingly, "but Captain America is better."

"Why?" He kept a vary eye on his partner lurking in the hallway.

"He's more down to Earth. He always does the right thing because it is the right thing to do", she listed. "He believes in the good of people and always gives them the benefit of the doubt. He's a mean fighter without being all fancy 'martial arts' about it. He uses real guns, not fancy toys. He has a really cool shield. And as a child, he lived in Hell's Kitchen – just like me."

Bucky stared at her.

"Yeah", he finally nodded. "That sounds pretty cool."

They sat in amiable silence. Rani kept her eyes on the page in front of her.

"So -" Bucky broke the silence again.

_He really does like to talk_, Rani thought.

"What's that one about?" He nodded at the comic.

"It's about Captain America and his friend Bucky protecting a woman from the bad guys", Rani explained. "She watched some mobsters kill a man and then drop his body in the harbour. And now they are going after her to stop her from telling the police about it."

Bucky stared.

He seemed interested, so she continued: "Right now, the Captain, Bucky and Peggy are hiding in an abandoned building. But the bad guys have followed them there and are preparing to attack them." She pointed at the page.

"And, does it say how the story ends?" Bucky asked hesitatingly.

Rani shrugged. "Don't know yet. It's not my comic. I found it over there."

She pointed to the silently rotting cupboard.

"Which is probably why it smells like mouse droppings", she added pensively.

They contemplated the magazine in question.

"Yeah", Bucky said.

Rani turned the page.

"Hey", Captain America kneeled down beside them again. "They're just outside in the hall. Probably arguing if they can take us out on their own."

"Seems to me, they've got a good chance."

"Don't be such a pessimist, Lionel. We'll do fine."

To Rani it looked as if the Captain was glowing in anticipation.

"There's only one possible entrance point for them", he nodded towards the apartment door. "It's a classic bottleneck. We'll take them one at a time."

"That's easy for you."

"Have a little faith, Lionel."

The Captain smiled a thin smile at him.

Bucky groaned.

"Can't be helped then, eh? Let's do it."

He pushed himself up with a grunt and took up a defensive position at the room's door. His weapon at the ready.

"Rani?"

She looked up into the Captain's blue eyes.

"I need you to stay right here. Okay? Don't stand up. Stay close to the ground. And don't move around."

"Okay", she nodded.

"You close your eyes, and keep your hands over your ears."

She had no intention of doing that, but nodded anyway.

He send her a last calculating look before moving away towards the entrance hall, pulling his gun out again on the way.

Rani turned the page.

Her eyes were riveted on the comic in her lap, but she was straining her ears, desperate to catch everything going on behind her.

She heard Bucky's tense breathing and the Captain shift his weight from one leg to the other. She heard whispers outside the closed apartment door. She heard someone twist the door's handle. She held her breath.

The door crashed open against the wall. It was followed by pandemonium. There were loud shouts, even louder crashes and shots that made her ears ring. There were grunts of pain.

From the corner of her eye she saw a bullet ricochet of the kitchen door hinge. It must have hit the already broken hallway mirror because she heard its shards jingling down and their remains being crushed under heavy boots.

Feeling oddly curious, Rani peeked around the corner of the sofa.

The Captain had lost his gun and was in a punching match with one of the bad guys. An ugly scar ran over the man's cheek. She had seen him before. Yesterday, when he had dumped another man's body into the harbour.

She looked to the left. Bucky was still behind his cover, shooting bullet after bullet through the now open apartment door. Someone hiding in a similar place out there was shooting back.

A knee crashed into the Captain's stomach. He grunted in pain and bent over. A fist smashed into his chin, threw his head back and made him loose his balance. Rani saw him stumble backwards. He caught himself, but the momentary lapse was all his opponent needed. The man had plunged to the ground and had managed to grip one of the dropped guns.

Rani didn't know whose gun it was. It didn't matter anyway. She watched the man aim blindly and pull the trigger.

Captain America cried out in pain.

His leg gave way and he tumbled backwards into the cupboard, where she had found her comic earlier. Silverware coated with patina spilled over him like a wave.

Rani wanted to turn away, but instead, she watched wide-eyed as her fallen Captain fumbled around helplessly while his attacker got back to his feet, the gun held firmly in his hand. The Captain's fingertips touched a plate of silverware.

And with a mighty swing, Captain America threw his shield.

The silver plate smashed into the scarred man's nose. There was a loud crunch. Blood cascaded down the attacker's face. Rani trembled. She watched the man sink to his knees, holding his face with both hands. His blood painted patterns on the floor. Deep inside her, she felt a small pang of contentment.

Bucky cursed.

"Hey!" She heard him call out. "Hey! John! John Reese! You okay?"

The Captain groaned in answer. "Yeah."

He tried to push himself up, but his movements were painfully slow.

"Doesn't look like it, man."

Rani watched breathlessly as Bucky fired two more shots in rapid succession and threw himself past the door to his partner. He put one arm underneath the taller man's shoulder and pulled.

"Come on. Get up."

Once the Captain was standing on his own feet again, he grinned crookedly at Bucky.

"You sound worried, Lionel."

Bucky snorted.

He didn't answer though. Instead, he raised his gun again and turned back to the remaining attackers.

Rani sat back with a sigh, thankful that her protectors were okay for the moment.

She closed her eyes and turned the page with shaking hands.

Laying her palm on the open comic in her lap, she felt scraps of paper underneath her fingers. She blinked surprised. There was a page missing. She could still make out the traces from where it had been ripped out years ago.

A cacophony of shots, screams and crashed filled the room, while she picked at the scraps curiously.

Then, the sofa behind her exploded into a thick cloud of dusty fabric and rotting sofa fillings, as multiple bullets ripped right through it.

Rani felt them impact into the floorboards beside her. Her eyes watered. She felt as if she was coughing up her lung. Her ears rang. A rough hand pulled her aside. Her knees scrapped over the floorboards. There were steps. Calls. More shots fired. Seconds felt like hours.

She felt something fall down heavy beside her. The floorboards vibrated.

Then, she was lifted up. She hacked out more coughs. Her hands grabbed onto the coat of the man carrying her.

"It's okay", she heard Bucky's voice in her ear. He sounded haggard and out of breath. "I got you. It's okay."

She was put back down on the floor.

Through watering eyes, she could just make out Captain America sitting on the floor in front of her, his back leaning against the wall, his right leg stretched out before him. He pressed his hands down at the bleeding wound in it.

Bucky kept throwing him worried glances while he peeked through the doorway into the other room. With a jolt, Rani noticed that they were sitting in what had once been the apartment's kitchen. She saw a dark red puddle spreading outside the doorway, right in front of Bucky's black leather shoes.

"Lionel?" The Captain rasped out.

"Looks good", Bucky replied. "Think we're clear."

He stepped out into the living room and Rani watched him nudge a dark shape on the floor with his shoe. "Got them all, alright."

The Captain's head thumbed back against the wall. He closed his eyes.

"Finch", he mumbled. "How's the back-up coming?"

Rani shook dust mites from her hair. She coughed again.

"Okay", she heard the Captain mumble. He was probably talking to the voice in his ear again, she thought.

"Lionel."

"What?"

"Police should be here any time now. You get her out." He nodded at Rani.

"What about you?"

She could tell that Bucky tried to hide the worry in his voice, but it was still obvious to her. The Captain noticed too, because he grinned a crooked smile again.

"You worry too much, Lionel."

Bucky rolled his eyes.

"Okay. Come on."

He waved his hand, motioning for her to join him.

Rani climbed to her feet. Her knees felt kind of weak and her hands clutched the comic tightly. Strange, she thought, but she didn't allow herself to dwell on it.

"Just walk straight out, okay? Don't look around." Bucky advised her.

She looked up at him and nodded.

He considered her for a moment, then stepped behind her, placed his hands on both sides of her face and guided her out of the apartment.

On the way out she tried to catch a glimpse of a body lying motionless on the floor, but Bucky's hand was in the way, and she didn't try again.

.

.

John Reese leant against a wall covered in graffiti while he watched Fusco put the girl into the back seat of a police cruiser. The building was swarming with officers and the first ambulance had arrived minutes ago. It was just a matter of time now until forensics joined them.

Time to leave, he thought.

He felt for the Bluetooth headset still nestled in his ear.

"She's off, Finch."

"Very well, Mr. Reese."

Reese imagined that he could hear his partner clicking away on his keyboard, already following the police car's progress through the city on CCTV.

"You'll keep an eye on her", he stated.

"Of course."

"I'm on my way back, now."

Reese smiled as he broke the connection for the first time that day.

Then, he turned to Fusco who shuffled up beside him. "She'll be fine."

"Yeah. They'll find her a new place. Her and her family. New identity. All that."

Fusco threw him a sideways look.

"What 'bout you?"

Reese shifted his weight to take the pressure off of his wounded leg.

"You are still worried. I'm touched, Lionel."

Fusco snorted. "Don't know why I bother."

He shuffled off to join his fellow officers.

Reese couldn't stop the smirk that graced his features. Then, he grimaced at the sting in his leg and started his long journey back to the library, where he knew Finch would be waiting – a first aid kit at the ready.

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_Please, read and review. :-)_


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